Marketing Minutes - Statistics to Inspire Business Owners to Do More

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As marketing tools like Google Analytics continue to improve, the case for doing more to market your business becomes even more relevant.

Today’s marketing analytics are not only available to everyone, they also make it clear that businesses using these marketing tools and techniques win. Below are marketing statistics to inspire you to begin marketing your business – the right way.

Email Marketing Stats

Businesses large and small are looking for a big impact on a tight budget. Look no further than email marketing. Constant Contact and Mail Chimp are two of Inventist Media’s favorites. Both do a killer job at delivering your message via “opt-in” or “subscription based” email marketing platforms. Mail Chimp even offers a free version for smaller email marketing databases.

Which of these two email marketing platforms are better?? It seems that the web developers and coders are Mail Chimp fans while the corporate users and marketing managers laud Constant Contact. Metrics say that both have about the same delivery rate.

77% of consumers prefer to get subscription based emails (opt-in).

44% of those receiving an opt-in email communication, made a purchase in the last year because of an email promotion they received.

In the B2B sector, 72% of buyers are most likely to share useful information via email.

No long sales pitch here on the use of Social Media – because it works. Statistics show Facebook is the #1 referrer to websites. More than ever, these competing social media platforms are developing new marketing and advertising tools to promote merchant sales, deliver video marketing messages, and produce calls to action (CTAs).

72% of adults get on their Facebook at least once per month.

A Facebook post gets most of its action within the first 5 hours of the post’s publication.

Facebook is the #1 referrer to websites. (Had to say that again.)

Facebook has the same amount of users monthly as China has Chinese people – 1.35 billion – you can add a few since this post (both to Facebook users AND China peeps that is )

There are 1.5 million active advertisers on Facebook.

Using Facebook as its primary marketing channel, Tough Mudder, which produces obstacle course challenges around the world, increased its sales 24X in just two years.

[Sources: MSNBC; Facebook; SocialTimes]

Other leading social media sites include Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.

Blogging Factoids

Businesses that blog are the businesses that win in marketing. Here are some statistics to inspire you to start blogging for business.

Internet users spend 3X more minutes reading blogs than reading emails or spending time on social networks.

Businesses that blog 20 times per month see 5X more visitors to their websites than those that blog 4x per month or less.

95% of businesses that blog report a higher search rank.

A business blog can raise your business website search rank. This means search engines may recognize your business as an authority in your industry for blogging and raise your ranking index. Statistics show 97% more inbound links are found with businesses with blogs than those without blogs.

Companies with more than 51 blog articles experience a 77% increase in monthly leads.

67% of marketing professionals state their blog is integral to their business.

We have seen a direct correlation between publishing engaging blog articles and upticks in lead generation.

It is important to remember that relevant, informative, and engaging content is key to a successful blogging campaign. Entertain – Inform – Engage – Convert is the blogging motto. There are also some techniques to writing a great blog. Check out the past Marketing Minutes column piece, "Making Your Blog Bloom."

SEO – Search Engine Optimization

You hear about this a lot. But many still don’t get it. There are a multitude of SEO myths out there on Search Engine Optimization and what it takes for your website to be found on that first page of search results. A first page ranking can be done quickly with a Pay Per Click (PPC) AdWords campaign – but that’s not going to build your SEO organically and in turn you’ll keep on paying for those clicks.

No More Gaming The System

The days of gaming the search ranking system are over. Even though we state in our blogging best practices article that elements such as keywords, H1 tags, alt image tags, and titles are important to use correctly, they don’t carry as much weight as they used to. Today’s search algorithms are now looking at how readers are engaging the content. Specifically:

How much time are they spending on a particular site or page? What is the user experience like?

How are readers sharing or talking about your content online?

What words are readers using online to describe your content?

Are the outbound links provided in your content relevant to the topic(s) being covered?

If you want to improve your SEO, you must have a strong content strategy. Strong SEO means developing a content strategy with a commitment to producing engaging, useful content for readers on a consistent basis. If you continue to tell your brand’s story through compelling content, over time you’ll see your website’s SEO rise in the search rankings. Organic methodology will build a long lasting web presence for your business.

The good news is that as the search algorithms improve, all you really have to do is tell your brand’s story in a compelling way. Our motto has always been, “Everything is a story.” Start telling your story.